Shadowforge
by plunoir
Summary: In a world ripped apart by planar chaos, Rotsi must find a way to destroy the dark power he holds, and to find a way to bring his beloved back.


**Shadowforge**

Rosti was 38 years old. His father hadn't been there for most of his life, and his mother died while giving birth. Rosti spent most of his time wandering the streets of Goahold, he loved the way the streets made him feel. No matter what was going on with his life, Goahold could solve his every problem instantly. He demonstrated this by wishing that he had a knife in his hands. Tendrils of shadow emerged from his fingers and formed into a cruel-looking dagger, it's blade glinting in the sun. He wouldn't need the dagger, however. Goahold was a peacefull city, all of the elves within, non-magickal and not, all got along. Ofcourse, if it wasn't for the enormus blue crystal that emerged from the center of the city, no one would even be alive.

Rosti dismissed the dagger and started towards the Crystal of Lifeshine. Yes, Rosti remembered the stories his foster parents had told him before they had left for Ragonhold far across the Fafnir Plains. About 12 years before Rosti was born, all of the planes adjacent to the one that the elves lived on had somehow merged into one. This caused worldwide devestation and havoc, along with a lot of otherwordly creatures. Most of them, the Kraaken's, the Manticore's, and the Giant's, all shared the same lust for destroying everything in sight. The Dragons, however, were split down the middle as to sides. Some of them allied with the elves while others plotted their destruction. But of all the creatures that had come through the planar shift, the humans were the most interesting.

Rosti stopped in front of the Lifeshine Crystal, gazing into it's bowels of endless power.

The humans were non-magickal folk, which Rosti never understood. They did come from a semi-magickal plane, the witches that hid in the shadows vouched for that, but it seemed that the plane feared magick. They had every right to. Rosti had seen and caused much devastation in his life, and most of it was magick related. But why not embrace it? The preists and preistesess use magick, but the common man didn't. Strange.

Rosti felt his wrist begin to burn. He turned his hand palm up, and gazed into the power stone embedded in his flesh. The burning feeling was due to the Lifeshine Crystal not agreeing with the Shadowforge Gem in Rosti's wrist. The two were related, but thier alignment was opposite each other.

More memories from his foster parents came to mind.

They said that many different forms of Power Crystals were placed here by the gods of old to balance out the flow of power. When the elves were divinely created, they were seperated and tribed with different crystals. Also when the elves came to be, was that pieces of the Power Crystals could broken off into smaller Power Gems and placed within the skin to unlock one's magickal potential, giving them personal power in addition to the immense power that being in the presence of a Power Crystal gave.

The Power Crystals sent microscopic particles into the air, therefore making the very air the elves breathed filled with magick. What this did was it created magickal elves without the use of the lesser Power Gems. These elves were called true elves, while the Gem Powered elves were simply called gem elves. Rosti thought it was rather befitting.

Still dwelling on old memories, Rosti recalled that there were originally forty Power Crystals to begin with. This created a well dispersed flow of magick, magick could be used anywhere. Now, however, some of the crystals had been either destroyed or captured and shrouded by an unknown enemy, this leaving "dead zones" where magick couldn't be used without the aid of Power Gems. Rosti was glad that he had chosen to become a gem elf. He did not gain his power right away, instead he had to wait until the Power Gem found him worthy of power. He was amazed to find that he was the only elf to be embedded with a Shadowforge Gem, the gems being switched as a cruel experiment.

He was in school in Felestia when the Shadowforge Gem accepted him. The entire classroom became covered in shadows as the light shining through the window seemed to retreat in fear of the boy's growing power. Everything went black just as Rosti heard Semmi scream.

A tear escaped him and ran down his cheek.

When he had awoken, his eyes became scarred of the utter massacre that used to be his classroom. He ran over to the blackened corpse of Semmi, her once radiantly white hair now covered in dark matter. She opened her eyes to Rosti and screamed a blood chilling scream. She mustered enough strength to push Rosti away and stand up. She had pulled her arms back and flung a ball of green lightning at Rosti, hitting him in the chest and throwing him against the back wall. Semmi, now trailing blood, walked over to the dazed Rosti and held her hands high, summoning a dagger of the same green lightning, and positioned the point at Rosti's heart. She let out a yell and thrusted down with the blade.

Time appeared to slow down. Rosti held out his hands in defense. From his fingertips came tendrils of shadowy substance, which formed into a sword.

The tortured screams of his beloved were cut short as she impaled herself on his blade of shadow. Rosti's sword then dissapated into the air as Semmi rolled onto the floor, her dagger crackling into unexistance. She was dead. He had killed the one he loved and she had tried to kill him.

The city of Felestia was destroyed that day, along with it the Shadowforge Crystal. The city now decimated and a love lost, a young boy left to find a way. Find the way to bring her back and the hundreds of people he had killed. Find a way to release himself from this darkness.

Find a way to destroy the Gem of Shadowforge.


End file.
